The Studio Recordings 1972-2000

Disc 1
1	Mother And Child Reunion
2	Duncan
3	Everything Put Together Falls Apart
4	Run That Body Down
5	Armistice Day
6	Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
7	Peace Like A River
8	Papa Hobo
9	Hobo’s Blues
10	Paranoia Blues
11	Congratulations
12	Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard Demo-San Francisco 2/71
13	Duncan Demo-San Francisco 2/71
14	Paranoia Blues Unreleased Version
Disc 2
1	Kodachrome
2	Tenderness
3	Take Me To The Mardi Gras
4	Something So Right
5	One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor
6	American Tune
7	Was A Sunny Day
8	Learn How To Fall
9	St. Judy’s Comet
10	Loves Me Like A Rock
11	Let Me Live In Your City Work-In-Progress
12	Take Me To The Mardi Gras Acoustic Demo
13	American Tune Unfinished Demo
14	Loves Me Like A Rock Acoustic Demo
Disc 3
1	Still Crazy After All These Years
2	My Little Town
3	I Do It For Your Love
4	50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
5	Night Game
6	Gone At Last
7	Some Folks’
8	Lives Roll Easy
9	Have A Good Time
10	You’re Kind
11	Silent Eyes
12	Slip Slidin’ Away Demo Version
13	Gone At Last Original Demo w/The Jessy Dixon Singers
14	Silent Eyes Unreleased Soundtrack Version
Disc 4
1	Late In The Evening
2	That’s Why God Made The Movies
3	One-Trick Pony
4	How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns
5	Oh, Marion
6	Ace In The Hole
7	Nobody
8	Jonah
9	God Bless The Absentee
10	Long, Long Day
11	Soft Parachutes Unreleased Soundtrack Recording
12	All Because Of You Outtake
13	Spiral Highway Unreleased Soundtrack Recording
14	Stranded In A Limousine
Disc 5
1	Allergies
2	Hearts And Bones
3	When Numbers Get Serious
4	Think Too Much (b)
5	Song About The Moon
6	Think Too Much (a)
7	Train In The Distance
8	Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War
9	Cars Are Cars
10	The Late Great Johnny Ace
11	Shelter Of Your Arms Unreleased Work-In-Progress
12	Train In The Distance Original Acoustic Demo
13	Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War Original Acoustic Demo
14	The Late Great Johnny Ace Original Acoustic Demo
Disc 6
1	The Boy In The Bubble
2	Graceland
3	I Know What I Know
4	Gumboots
5	Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
6	You Can Call Me Al
7	Under African Skies
8	Homeless
9	Crazy Love Vol. II
10	That Was Your Mother
11	All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints
12	Homeless Demo
13	Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes Unreleased Version
14	All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints Early Version
Disc 7
1	The Obvious Child
2	Can’t Run But
3	The Coast
4	Proof
5	Further To Fly
6	She Moves On
7	Born At The Right Time
8	The Cool, Cool River
9	Spirit Voices
10	The Rhythm Of The Saints
11	Born At The Right Time Original Acoustic Demo
12	Thelma Outtake
13	The Coast Work-In-Progress
14	Spirit Voices Work-In-Progress
Disc 8
1	Adios Hermanos
2	Born In Puerto Rico
3	Satin Summer Nights
4	Bernadette
5	The Vampires
6	Quality
7	Can I Forgive Him
8	Sunday Afternoon
9	Killer Wants To Go To College
10	Time Is An Ocean
11	Virgil
12	Killer Wants To Go To College II
13	Trailways Bus
14	Shoplifting Clothes Unreleased
15	Born In Puerto Rico Demo w/José Feliciano
16	Can I Forgive Him Original Demo
Disc 9
1	That’s Where I Belong
2	Darling Lorraine
3	Old
4	You’re The One
5	The Teacher
6	Look At That
7	Señorita With A Necklace Of Tears
8	Love
9	Pigs, Sheep And Wolves
10	Hurricane Eye
11	Quiet
12	That’s Where I Belong Live
13	Old Live
14	Hurricane Eye Live

Barnes & Noble

Paul Simon’s brilliant solo albums reflect a restless musical mind hungry for new sounds, as well as a literary imagination eager to express sentiments and ideas in novel ways. Continually reinventing his musical identity, always going his own way, Simon has led an exemplary pop music career. The Studio Recordings 1972-2000 collects the quintessential singer-songwriter’s nine defining albums, including Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years, One -Trick Pony, Hearts and Bones, Graceland, Rhythm of the Saints, Songs from The Capeman, and You’re the One. (Each is available as a single album with additional tracks included.) Supplementary material is added to every album in the form of demos, outtakes, or live performances. Simon’s albums present a fascinating journey as he formulates an individual musical voice distinct from his groundbreaking work with Simon and Garfunkel. As the increasing sophistication of his earlier singer-songwriter works evolves into the pioneering world music albums Graceland, and Rhythm of the Saints, the breadth and scope of Simon’s ambitions becomes apparent. There are hits on nearly every album -- classics including “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” “Kodachrome,” “Still Crazy After All These Years,” “Late in the Evening,” and “Call Me Al” -- amid slews of superb songs that have cemented Simon’s status as a pop music master. Collected amid his other work, this box set allows us to look afresh upon and reconsider some of the less-celebrated Simon albums, such as Hearts and Bones, Songs from The Capeman, and You’re the One. A great composer, singer, guitarist, and musical conceptualist, Simon is an American artist for the ages, and The Studio Recordings 1972-2000 is his testament. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

Look closely at the title to this nine-disc box set -- it's Studio Recordings, not the complete studio recordings, which means there are things missing, and they will be things that you will miss. Naturally, the emphasis on studio recordings means that neither of Paul Simon's two live albums -- 1974's Live Rhymin' or 1991's Concert in the Park -- are here, but this also doesn't contain all of Simon's released studio recordings, somehow bypassing "Slip Slidin' Away," the Top Five single originally released as one of two new songs on his 1977 compilation, Greatest Hits, Etc. Since that single was not on a proper album, it has been overlooked on this box, which serves up remastered and expanded digipack reissues of Simon's nine solo albums from 1972's Paul Simon to 2000's You're the One. Since these reissues not only sound terrific -- the clarity, particularly on the first two albums, is startling -- but are graced with genuinely interesting bonus tracks, the omission of the original version of "Slip Slidin' Away" is a little easier to forgive, particularly since an excellent, loose-limbed alternate version is added to Still Crazy After All These Years and "Stranded in a Limousine," the other new song on Greatest Hits, Etc., finally reappears on CD as a bonus track on One Trick Pony. These are only two bonus tracks of 30 that are spread over these nine albums. With the exception of "Stranded in a Limousine," "Thelma" on Rhythm of the Saints (an outtake originally released as part of 1993 box set 1964-1993), and three live tracks on You're the One, all of these bonus tracks are previously unreleased. While there is a handful of rare songs, the majority of these are either demos or works in progress, and they're fascinating, such as a radically different version of "Duncan" with an entirely different narrative, different final verses on "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" and "Loves Me Like a Rock," and a skeletal working version of "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" containing little more than Simon's vocal and a fretless bass. By and large, these are significant additions to Simon's catalog, and combined with the terrific remastering, they make this essential for any serious Simon fan (although it would have been nice if either the individual albums or the overall box were given new liner notes, particularly since Rhino's similar Jerry Garcia box set, All Good Things, had such a stellar booklet). For the less dedicated, a better bet will be cherry-picking from reissues of the individual albums, which are scheduled to go on sale in the month after the release of this box set. Stephen Thomas Erlewine